The Prophets and Our Resources

Review of the previous post.

The previous post, post number 4 of 13, continued introducing the topic and continued the discussion of ecotheology by discussing the shortcomings of the current application of ecotheology.

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 5 of 13, continues introducing the topic and discusses the premise of this series.

1. Introduction

4. Premise of this series

The premise of this essay is that as currently used such ecotheology fails because of this hindsight reading of the Bible regarding issues that are different in kind from those faced or even contemplated by the Bible, and the co-operative attempt to use Biblical passages as guidance for solving such modern problems. This must be replaced by a process that, while having some base in the Bible, does not require a hindsight reading of the Bible and has a more modern application that uses principles that are applicable to modern society. As such, this essay will propose the following: first, it will be suggested that the Bible, and in particular the prophets, merely identified a problem that humans were mistreating the land but did not propose any teaching that could be used, especially today, as guidance in correcting this problem; and second, to suggest a method which, while remaining rooted in the Bible, can be applied to today’s issues. It is a two-step solution rather than the one-step solution of trying to find teaching in the Bible that directly applies to today’s environmental concerns.

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 6 of 13, continues introducing the topic and discusses some modern concerns in the field of ecology.